


I shun no hardship

by zinjadu



Series: Wed to Blight [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Gen, Personal Growth, Survival Training, because they had to do something while getting to Ostagar, how else would a city kid learn about these things?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-06 22:38:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12827610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinjadu/pseuds/zinjadu
Summary: Duncan might have saved her life, but Caitwyn isn't so sure about this Grey Warden person.  That said, she knows she has a lot to learn if she's to survive this new life of hers, and there's no other teacher handy.





	I shun no hardship

Caitwyn eyed Duncan warily.  Valendrian had said the human was a friend, but she could not recall him being in the Alienage before.  Though she supposed if he always visited the elders, then she might have not noticed him at all.  However, up to this point the only humans that Caitwyn had ever considered remotely safe were the Sisters and Mothers of the Chantry. 

 

More than that, though, she wondered why her mother had never mentioned Duncan.  In all the stories Mama ever told, she had never mentioned nearly being recruited in to the Grey Wardens. 

 

They had ridden most of the day, Caitwyn far from comfortable on the animal, but they needed to move quickly to get to Ostagar.  One day's ride away from Denerim, and most of it had been spent in silence.  Now, however, they were making camp, and her muscles twitched.  She was on edge, ready to flee at a moment's notice if he came too close.

 

"Caitwyn, you do not have to fear me," he said, looking up at her from underneath his dark brows as he rummaged in his bags for some food.

 

"I do not fear you," she said, and it was not entirely a lie.  She did not necessarily fear this man.  Not precisely.  But old lessons ran deep, and she couldn’t forget how those shems had come for her, cornered her in the storeroom— _eager grins on their faces, she’s a scraper this one, heart racing, her body tensed, panic, braced for pain_.  Caitwyn blinked, snapping herself out of the memory of yesterday.  Only yesterday, but it seemed like she carried the weight of ages in her heart now.

 

He sighed but let the matter drop.  Extending some bread and cheese to her, she took the food quickly from his hand and resumed her spot on the other side of the fire.  Watching, waiting.  But when morning came she had not been disturbed in the night, and she thought perhaps this human did not necessitate quite so much caution.

 

* * *

 

“Are you on the road often, away from cities?” she asked, breaking silence of the morning.  The sun was just up, and a haze twined through the tall grass at the side of the road.  It was strange to look out and see fields and scattered farm houses, not buildings pressed side by side, or twisting streets, or simply the crowds of people she was used to.

 

“Yes, the life of a Grey Warden is often that of being on the move.  We must patrol Thedas, even if there is no Blight, looking for signs of Darkspawn activity and putting them down if they are present,” he explained even as his eyes carefully watched the area around them.  She nodded, betraying nothing of her concern on her face.  It seemed likely she would have to learn to survive in the wilderness, if she was to be a Grey Warden.  It was an environment that was so utterly foreign to her it might as well be Orlais. 

 

“I see,” she said simply, and the rest of the day was spent in silence.  That night she observed him carefully as he built up the fire, and began to learn how to make sure this new life was one she could live through.  She was fairly sure that Duncan knew what she was doing, but did not comment, instead keeping to the pattern of relative quiet that they had established. 

 

It was growing oddly comfortable.

 

* * *

 

Caitwyn wove through the tall grass, slightly embarrassed at having to stop so early after they had started out, but she had drunk a fair amount of water that morning.  Duncan had made no comment, however, and merely promised to hold the horses while she sorted matters.  Though she did take the opportunity to practice moving quietly through the open field, stepping carefully to avoid twigs and rocks, so different from the dirty, glass and shit littered back alleys of Denerim.  She must not have moved quietly enough, because suddenly a flock of birds sprang up from the grass.

 

After a half a heartbeat of surprise, she nocked an arrow, drew, and then released, shooting a bird down.  It fell to the earth with a satisfying thump, and she trotted lightly to pick it up.  When she returned to the road and showed Duncan her prize, his smile was so proud, so pleased, she had to work to suppress a grin of her own. 

 

“Well done,” he told her, taking the bird from her.  “And very neatly shot.  Worth a little delay while we clean it up, don’t you think?”

 

“I suppose so,” she replied, shrugging, trying to pass it off as not a remarkable thing.  But her green eyes were dragged back to the human as he seemed only too happy to clean the animal for her.  _Proud_ , she thought, _he looked proud, like Mama was proud of me_.

 

That night she felt comfortable enough to sit next to him as they passed the roast pheasant back and forth, eating right off the spit.  Between the bird, and the fact that she had built that night’s fire, she was feeling more confident in her ability to survive outside the city.  The relative peace of their journey allowed her thoughts to turn to Shianni, to her family.  She knew they were likely actually safer without her after everything that had happened, and her mind shied away from that day, the feel of blood on her hands and face, the scent of unwashed men, and the sight of Shianni’s curled, hurt body on the cold, hard stone floor.

 

Her hands tightened around the spit, and she took a breath, trying to keep her voice steady.

 

“There are going to be lots of men at Ostagar, aren’t there?” she asked Duncan, eyes on the fire.  He said nothing for several moments, only the crackle of the fire and the noises of night animals in her ears.

 

“Yes, it is an army encampment, and there will be many people there, but that is not what you are asking about,” he said softly, almost gently.  He sighed.  “I wish I could say such things did not happen in an army, but they do.  Know this, however, the Grey Wardens who will be at Ostagar will be your brothers and sisters in arms.  We protect our own.”

 

“That’s… good,” she said quietly, looking at him, an understanding in his dark eyes.  Quickly, she passed him the last of the roast bird.  He took it, and she noticed he was careful not to touch her.  Not because she was a dirty knife-ear, she thought, but because he was aware that she did not want to be touched.

 

“Duncan, could you,” she began, then took a breath and pushed through all the voices in her head that told her not to trust humans, not to trust their men, and never, ever admit to weakness in front of anyone if it wasn’t part of a con, at least.  “Could you teach me more about surviving on the road?  In the wild?”

 

“I would be happy to,” he said, his bearded face splitting into a grin.

 

“Good, thank you,” she said, voice clipped, turning back to the fire, not wanting him to see she was grateful.  He did not comment on her rudeness, though she did hear him let out a low chuckle.  She let it pass, not taking the laugh to heart.  It was still a long road to Ostagar, and she had much to learn, and not just about surviving in the wilderness.

 

We protect our own, he had said.

 

Mama had told her that, when Caitwyn had been younger, when she had been learning how to fight and steal and con.  She had been taken away from everything and everyone she had ever known, thrown in to a life of a Grey Warden due to one man’s effort to save her from the gallows, for herself or for the memory of her mother, it hardly mattered.  She was here now, and she was part of a new family, in a way.  People who stood apart from the rest of the world, who were in it but not of it fully, and they would trust her to fight for them simply because she joined up. 

 

She would have to learn to trust them as well.


End file.
